Album Review: Low - Trust

Not an album that jumps out of Low's extensive back catalogue, Trust sounded like a thing of dark, wintry beauty upon its release in 2002. Revisiting it now, it's hard to get beyond the truly wondrous seven minutes of opening track (That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace. Over Alan Sparhawk's clanking, echoey guitar, his and Mimi Parker's voices duet beautifully on this track. The chorus merely consists of them singing "Amazing Grace" and it truly is a joy to listen to. As Sparhawk sings "it sounds like razors in my ear".

It's followed by the faster-paced Canada, a kind of an indie-strum, but the momentum created by this and it's predecessor is ruined by the plodding Candy Girl, the only real misstep on the album. The remainder of the album consists of accessible Sparhawk sung strums (Time Is The Diamond, the banjo-featuring In The Drugs), short and sweet Parker-sung wintry ballads (Tonight, piano ballad Point of Disgust), Spector-like wall of sound tracks (Last Snowstorm of the Year, La La Song) and a pair of really angry tracks (The Lamb, John Prine). These last two feature crashing guitars, pounding drums and almost vengeful vocals, with the latter also featuring the tolling of a foreboding bell.

Shots & Ladders rounds things off, blissing out into a sort of snow-gaze ending. For me, this album is Low in their prime, showing them to be one of the finest bands around.